Latest news with #mosaic
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
Stolen by Nazis, returned to Pompeii: Ancient erotic mosaic goes home after 80 years
ROME, July 22 — An ancient Roman erotic mosaic depicting a half-naked couple has returned to Pompeii more than 80 years after it was stolen by a Nazi officer during World War Two, Italy's cultural heritage police said last week. The intimate artwork, featuring a man reclining in bed with his female partner standing in front of him, was handed back by Germany following a diplomatic effort, the police said in a statement. Set on a slab of travertine, the mosaic panel dates to between the late 1st century B.C. and the 1st century A.D. It was taken from the area around Pompeii, near Naples, during the war by a German Nazi army captain assigned to military logistics in Italy. The German officer gifted the piece to a civilian, who kept it until his death. His heirs, realising its origin, contacted the Italian authorities to arrange its return. Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the German-born director of the Pompeii archaeological park, described the mosaic as part of a cultural turning point where everyday intimacy became a subject in Roman art, as opposed to the heroic myths of earlier centuries. 'Here we see a new theme, the routine of domestic love,' he said, noting that the male figure's expression 'seems almost a little bored'. The mosaic will now be put on display at Pompeii alongside the hundreds of other items and archaeological remains at the site of the ancient city destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. — Reuters
New York Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Corrections: July 18, 2025
An article on Thursday about the return of a looted mosaic to the city of Pompeii referred imprecisely to some of the volcanic matter Pompeii was buried in when Mount Vesuvius erupted. It was buried in ash and rock fragments, not lava. A video game review on Thursday about Donkey Kong Bananza misidentified the actress voicing Pauline. She is Jenny Kidd, not Kate Higgins. Errors are corrected during the press run whenever possible, so some errors noted here may not have appeared in all editions. To contact the newsroom regarding correction requests, please email nytnews@ To share feedback, please visit Comments on opinion articles may be emailed to letters@ For newspaper delivery questions: 1-800-NYTIMES (1-800-698-4637) or email customercare@
New York Times
7 days ago
- General
- New York Times
A Pompeii Mosaic, Taken by a Nazi Captain, Is Returned
For decades, the mosaic remained hidden in Germany, until investigators searching for looted art identified it as a work taken from the ruins of Pompeii. This week, the vivid piece, depicting an intimate bedroom scene, went on display in Italy near the site of the ancient Roman city, the Pompeii Archaeological Park said in a statement. The artifact is among thousands of objects, looted from Pompeii over the centuries, that in recent decades have been returned to the site. A Nazi Wehrmacht captain serving in Italy and in charge of supply chains somehow acquired the mosaic during World War II, perhaps through looting or theft, and transported it to Germany in 1944, where he presented it as an extravagant gift to an unnamed civilian, according to the Italian police. It remains unclear who had the mosaic before the captain took possession of it or where it was. Decades later, a relative of the last German owner, who had inherited the mosaic, contacted the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Italy, a police squad that has traced and returned thousands of pieces of art and looted artifacts, and asked how to return it. The police have not identified the heir. Checking against a database of more than a million artifacts, many of them stolen, the unit's investigators confirmed that the panel had originated from Pompeii's ruins and then reached out to the Pompeii Archaeological Park, which manages the site and its antiquities, according to Gen. Francesco Gargaro, who leads the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. The mosaic was officially returned to Italy through diplomatic channels on Sept. 16, 2023, and is now being exhibited at the park. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CNN
16-07-2025
- CNN
Erotic mosaic, stolen by German officer in World War II, returned to Pompeii
An erotic mosaic stolen from Pompeii by a Nazi captain during World War II was finally returned to the ancient site on Tuesday. Featuring a man reclining on a couch being attended to by a scantily clad woman, the small mosaic may have decorated a bedroom floor in a Roman villa, the Pompeii Archaeological Park said in a statement. When Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, its buildings, thousands of inhabitants and this mosaic were buried beneath layers of ash and pumice. This coating perfectly preserved the city for more than 1,600 years, making it one of the most important archaeological sites in the world as it offers an unprecedented insight into Roman daily life. For example, despite dating from between the late 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, this mosaic is still brightly colored, with all its tiles still intact. By World War II, many areas of Pompeii had already been uncovered. This mosaic was stolen by a Wehrmacht captain who oversaw Germany's military supply chain in Italy during the war, the archaeological park said. He gave it to an unnamed German citizen whose heirs contacted the Italian police, asking how they could return it, the park added. A specialist unit of Italy's police, responsible for protecting the country's cultural heritage, then investigated the mosaic's provenance, tentatively tracing it back to the area destroyed by Mount Vesuvius, although certain information about its discovery was missing. 'Every looted artifact that returns is a wound that heals, so we express our gratitude to the Protection Unit for their work. The wound lies not so much in the material value of the work, but in its historical value; a value that is severely compromised by the illicit trafficking of antiquities,' Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, said in a statement. 'We don't know the artifact's exact provenance and likely never will,' he said, adding that the park will conduct further tests to piece together the mosaic's history as much as possible. The mosaic will be temporarily displayed at a museum in Pompeii for public viewing. Erotic art has been discovered in Pompeii before. Archaeologists uncovered a tiny house filled with elaborate — and sometimes racy — frescoes in October 2024; another house covered in raunchy frescoes reopened to the public in January 2023 after being closed for 20 years; while another fresco, depicting an erotic scene from the Greek myth of Leda and the swan, was uncovered in 2018. CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau contributed reporting.
Washington Post
16-07-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Decades after a Nazi captain stole an erotic Roman mosaic, it returns to Pompeii
An intricate mosaic panel looted from Italy during the Second World War has been repatriated to Pompeii after some 80 years, Italian authorities and archaeologists at the site said this week. The ancient panel — which depicts a scene of two lovers — was apparently taken by a Nazi captain during the war and donated to another person in Germany as a gift, Italian authorities said Tuesday. According to the statement, which did not identify any of the people by name, Italian police were contacted by the heir of the person who had received the mosaic as a gift, leading to its repatriation through diplomatic channels. The vibrantly colored travertine panel depicts a pair of half-clothed lovers, with a woman standing beside a man reclining. The mosaic forms part of a rich ancient tradition of erotic artwork, examples of which archaeologists say have been discovered across virtually every space in Pompeii from private homes to bathhouses. A preliminary analysis of the panel by archaeologists suggests it may have originally adorned the floor of a bedroom in a villa, although its exact provenance is not known. The analysis dated the mosaic to the Vesuvian era, which takes its name from the period around 79 A.D., when an eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii with volcanic materials. The mosaic was delivered to Pompeii under the supervision of the Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, a specialist Italian police unit founded in 1969 to combat illicit trafficking of the cultural artifacts and known colloquially as the Carabinieri Art Squad. At a news conference Tuesday, the squad's Maj. Gen. Francesco Gargaro said the mosaic was seized by an unidentified Wehrmacht captain, referring to Germany's wartime fighting forces, although the exact chain of events surrounding its theft may never be known. According to Gargaro, the looter was tasked with administering logistic supplies in wartime Italy and gave the piece to another person in Germany. For decades, its existence remained unknown to Italian authorities — until they received a call from the heir to the person who received the mosaic. 'I must emphasize the enormous sensitivity of this gentleman,' said Gargaro, who described how the unidentified man realized the panel's historic significance when he inherited it from his father. The mosaic was then delivered to the Italian consulate in the German city of Stuttgart, he said, which organized it to be repatriated. Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, said the repatriation of the artifact 'heals a wound.' He said that where the mosaic originally came from may never be known, but that his team will conduct scientific analysis on the artifact to date it as precisely as possible. According to art historians, German Nazis and Italian fascists alike were fascinated by Ancient Rome — believing their modern empires to be its symbolic heirs. Researchers have chronicled examples of Nazi officials requesting gifts of Roman antiquities from Benito Mussolini's regime. Other ancient artifacts were stolen or illegally exported throughout the wartime period by a network of art dealers, troops and civilians — much of which was undocumented and untraceable. The exact route by which this mosaic made it to Germany remains unclear. The mosaic will be temporarily displayed in Pompeii's Antiquarium museum, which displays artifacts from the site, as it undergoes further study and analysis. Stefano Pitrelli contributed reporting.
